Karla's Kolumn: What is normal?

Several months ago I explained how a woman's mind works and how we have many thoughts going through our minds at any one time.

The Facebook meme says it best "My mind is like my internet browser, 19 tabs open (co-workers repeatedly tell me I have too many open), 3 of them are frozen and I have no idea where the music is coming from."

Well the past few weeks that has been me more than ever. This is why I let our sports editor Alex Kuhn share his thoughts in this space last week, hoping that this week, one of the many random thoughts would catch hold and I could focus on one topic.

But this is 2020 and logic, reason, sanity and normalcy are out the window, so you can guess that did not happen.

I figure the next step is to get at least three of the random thoughts down on paper and perhaps next week I can focus on one topic.

•School has started and along with that school sports. In reading the sports previews prior to most of the seasons starting it was sad but telling in the COVID-19 world we live in that one of the main goals for most teams was not the post season or a state title but rather just to finish the season. They do not want what happened to basketball, track and soccer last spring to happen to them this fall.

I attended all three elementary schools in Worland within the first week of school and last week at South Side we decided to document classroom, recess and lunch time COVID style. You can see these photos in this week's issue.

My heart goes out to these students who longed to spend time with friends only now to find themselves basically eating alone, playing on the playground with one another but six feet apart.

This is the "new normal" they keep referring to during this pandemic. I am ready for normal. I want our students to be able to play together, to have fun. I do not want our students and our youth living in fear. I want to see smiles on their faces.

•Speaking of "new normal" I was talking to one restaurant worker last week and she was struggling to be heard and understood through her mask but she said she feels that for her and the restaurant industry – masks are the new long-term "normal."

Perhaps that will be true, especially for those specifically handling food because there are always viruses or bacterial infections running through the population at any given time.

I know in past years during the peak of flu season my husband and I avoided salad bars and buffets, but we'd also cringe when we would hear coughing or hacking coming from the kitchen of a restaurant.

I thought of this when early in the pandemic a customer got mad when a grocery store was not requiring masks of all their employees. She said she would not shop there again or ever get food from the deli. But, apparently she never worried about it with the flu, with the H1N1 (swine flu) 2009 pandemic, the 2014 ebola epidemic, or any other epidemic in the past several years.

Good hygiene (mask or not) should always be normal.

•Some residents are going to start feeling the state budget cuts with some programs cut, some positions not being filled. This is what happens when government agencies have to tighten their belts. Many people tell our legislators cut first before raising taxes and Rep. Mike Greear was right when he said in the Northern Wyoming News last week that residents will not be prepared to discuss raising revenue until the cuts begin impacting their lives.

The next round of cuts could potentially be the one where people begin discussing revenue options.

Greear is also right that the State Legislature needs to be having those discussions now. It does not mean that come January they put forth several tax proposals but it means that they need to discuss which proposals will raise the most revenue, discuss how the proposals will impact the residents of Wyoming and can the Wyoming residents handle the impact.

And in 2020, and likely the start of 2021, with people and businesses dealing with the impact of orders from COVID-19 many people are struggling right now so any tax increase would be a hardship. Something the legislators need to consider.

It is not an enviable task and we wish our legislators and our state leaders luck as they work though these tough financial times. Our county, city and school officials will be facing tough times in the future to the cutbacks at the state level. We need to encourage them and be supportive where we can.